The present invention pertains to a family of heterocyclic dione compounds employed as cancer chemotherapy drugs. In particular, the present invention concerns employing heterocyclic diones for treating tumors in mammals. Specifically, the furandiones of the class 3-(heteroarylalkylene)- and 3-(arylalkylene)-2,4(3H,5H) furandiones, and 3-(heteroarylalkylene)2,4(3H,5H)-pyrrolidene diones and -thiophenediones are exposed to mammal cancer tumor cells in vitro, or may be injected into or given orally to mammals having cancer tumor cells, at an effective dosage concentration to reduce or eliminate the cancer tumor cells. 2. Prior Art
Treatment of various types of cancer with certain chemotherapy drugs is a well known procedure Some forms of cancer can be treated effectively, even cured, with current chemotherapy drugs. However, many of the most common forms of cancer with high mortality rates (e.g. lung and colon cancer) are almost completely resistant to the current generation of drugs. Accordingly, there is a need for better, more effective cancer chemotherapy drugs which are applicable against many types of cancer and have acceptable side effects.
The use of certain lignans as cancer chemotherapy drugs is well known. In attempting to make analogs of these lignans, applicants discovered the new family of compounds 3-(heteroarylalkylene)-and 3-(arylalkylene)-2,4 (3H,5H)-furandiones, and 3-(heteroarylalkylene)2,4(3H,5H)-pyrrolidiene diones and -thiophenediones. See Condensation of 2.4(3H5H) Furandiones with Heteroaromatic Aldehydes, published in the Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry, Vol 20, page 787, May-June, 1983. At the time these compounds were synthesized, the suggested use of the compounds was as a potential synthetic intermediate for the synthesis of antineoplastic lignans. No other suggested use or further characteristics of the furandione compounds were known to enable one to predict their usefulness.